About the Autism Resources Website

Who created this website?
I'm John Wobus, father of Timothy Wobus (picture) who is autistic, and at this writing (9/04) is 20 years old Picture of Tim (Click here to see a piece of Tim's artwork). I am in the computer business, an employee of Cornell University and a former employee of Syracuse University.
Is he an authority on autism?
No: I'm someone who knows how to create websites, and who dedicates part of my time to maintaining a website for the benefit of autistic people.
Can people send him questions about autism?
People do send me questions on occasion, apparently assuming I'm an authority on the subject. Invariably all I can do is point them to the lists of links and book titles that are readily available on this website, point them to the Memo answering Frequently Asked Questions on the subject or suggest they pose their question to the members of one of the online forums such as the the St. Johns U. AUTISM mailing list.
Does this website have links to all online information about autism?
No: so many people and organizations have taken the trouble to put so much information online that it is no longer possible to do such a thing.
Is this the most comprehensive collection of links about autism?
At one time in the past, yes. By now, many other people have devoted effort to very good sites on autism, with excellent link directories.
Will he take suggestions for the website?
Absolutely. If you know of a web page or site that is about autism that I do not have listed, I would be grateful if you would e-mail me at jwobus1@twcny.rr.com.
How does he decide which links to include?
I discover links through reading mailing lists, from people who send them to me, and occasionally by searching or surfing. I include a link to any page that has to do with autism: this website is simply an index of what information is available on the web. The only situations where I don't include a link are:
How often is this website updated?
It used to be twice a week, depending upon what came to my attention, but lately (1/00 and after) it has been much less often.
Are all the pages linked to by this website correct?
If you browse the links, you will eventually find contradictory information, which fact implies mistakes (or lies) among the pages. While there is a conventional wisdom about the nature and treatment of it, autism is still a bit of a mystery and that is reflected in conflicting views, some of which are well-represented online. Most likely, some aren't.
In that case, which information should be believed?
That is a question which I cannot answer. But what I will try to avoid is answering the question for you; I'll attempt to play a librarian-like role rather than that of authority. All I can say is: with or without this website, you will face that same question. The only way you can avoid it is to allow someone else to answer it for you, hiding from you any conflicting views.
Who helped him with this website?
Many people have sent me links and many more have posted links on mailing lists. To all of them I am grateful. The one person I wish to especially credit is Stephen Drake, among other things, creator of The Facilitated Communication Institute's website. He gave me material to make available on the net even before either of us had a website and he obviously shares the goal of making available information on autism.
Is this website sponsored by a university?
No, though it was originally indirectly supported by Syracuse University when it provided its employees the means to set up homepages and gave them the freedom to choose the content. It presently resides at a site that I paid for.
Does this website earn the website owner money?
In association with Amazon.com, you can buy autism-related books through this website. The price of any book you buy in such manner Amazon.com's normal price. I'm trying out this association to see if it covers my costs in providing this website (see below). Despite this, the primary goal of this website is the dissemination of information on all autism-related books including where and how they can be acquired. I include books in the autism bibliography whether or not Amazon.com carries them and I list links to other sources of autism-related books even though they are my "competition".
Does this website cost the website owner money?
Yes, for the webspace and for the name www.autism-resources.com.
If this is not a commercial site, how come it is dot com?
I thought of naming the site "www.autism-resources.org" but decided upon ".com" because they let you buy either for the same amount of money, ".com" is more familiar to people so I felt more people would successfully find the site, and some browsers, when given the string "autism-resources" are designed to try the name with "www." and ".com", which also helps people find the site.
How often does someone visit this site?
Logs have show our main page to be visted visited at a rate above 5,000 times a week, i.e., more than 250,000 times a year.
How is this website rated by other sites?
Some old information:
Why isn't this website fancier?
I suppose it's nice to have all kinds of autism websites and this one will take the role of "the plain one". Being nearly all text, it has the advantages of loading more quickly over telephone lines than would sites with more graphics, and it functions well with older and less typical browsers, thus acommodating a larger audience.
How old is this website?
The Autism Resources website began in March 1995 and received its Internet name, www.autism-resources.com in November 1998. It moved off of Syracuse University's facilities in January 2000 after the University generously allowed the site to remain six months after the website owner departed the University's employ. The Autism FAQ Memo began in early 1993, first as a posting to the St. Johns U. AUTISM list, later after it grew too large, was made available on the Internet via ftp, then through the Autism Resources website.
May other sites link to this website?
Absolutely: you need not ask my permission.
May I give out copies of the pages on this website or include it in other publications?
For the material that I produced or compiled, the copyright is whatever is the default provided by US copyright laws. I grant my permission to make copies and hand them out for free. I grant my permission to place this material on the Internet at other sites as long as it is credited. And if you make it clear that this is material freely available on the Internet, then I grant my permission to charge for the copies, giving you a way to cover costs. I also grant my permission to include the material in books as long as credit is given and that it is stated that the material is freely available on the Internet. I also grant permission to translate this material into other languages for any of these purposes. This material includes: Naturally, through the links, you reach material located at other sites for which I am not the one to grant permissions. There is also some additional material at this site aside from what is listed above, which was given to me for inclusion and while I assume they were giving or had secured permission, I do not necessarily have their copyright status nor do I know what further permissions are granted.

(back to Autism Resources)

John Wobus, 9/29/04

This page can be found at www.autism-resources.com.